As the CSW58 priority theme is “Challenges and achievements in the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for women and girls,” Ecumenical Women is focusing over the next few months on educating our online community about the MDGs and the ongoing “post-2015 dialogue” on what will follow their completion.
While you can find more basic information on the MDGs here and a summary of the post-2015 dialogue here, we did want to provide two specific updates on what is happening within the UN system this week:
“Who Will Be Accountable?: Human Rights and the Post-2015 Development Agenda“ Earlier today the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights released a new publication discussing accountability toward ensuring human rights in the post-2015 development agenda. As stated in the publication’s foreword:
“…some of the most celebrated Millennium Development Goals success stories since 2000 are now sites of mass protest decrying widespread deprivation, repression and inequalities masked by the narrow models of economic analysis that have characterized development approaches in the pre-2015 period. The message is clear: economic growth is not an adequate measure of development. Rather, equality matters, the environment matters and human rights matter. So do good governance and anti-corruption. The real test, to a growing global population demanding a life of dignity, is the degree to which they are able to enjoy freedom from fear and want, without discrimination."
If you’re interested in learning more about the proposed “human rights approach” to global development instead of the primarily economic approach of the MDGs, be sure to check out the publication here.
Open Working Group on the Sustainable Development Goals The third session of the Open Working Group on the Sustainable Development Goals opened today at UN headquarters in New York and will continue until this Friday, 24 May. This afternoon’s subject is “Food Security & Nutrition, Sustainable Agriculture, Desertification, Land Degradation and Drought,” and the importance of educating women farmers on sustainable agriculture practice was just mentioned, for example. You can watch a live webcast of the proceedings here. The Open Working Group on the SDGs is a main aspect of the post-2015 dialogue.